Foreword

These travel and safety tips are not a substitute for laws and are not intended to limit the diversity of opinions of my fellow travelers. However, since I organize and carry out the station pub tours and train trips in my free time, and thus in addition to family life and the usual strenuous work, I rely on my hobby of railways to have as little stress as possible. I therefore absolutely depend on the cooperation and understanding of my fellow travelers both before and during the tours and afterwards. These travel and safety tips are based on my experiences over the last few years, and I ask all travel friends who would like to take part in my trips to read and agree to them. Please do not understand this text as an attempt to blackmail me into only wanting to have conformist clones of myself on board. There were no problems at all on the vast majority of the tours, but I have experienced a few things in the past that I am simply no longer prepared to accept.

How you can make the organization easier for me in advance

Please fill out the request form on the homepage completely and honestly. Only request a ride if you are sure that you want to take part in the tour. Please answer the questions I ask you via WhatsApp or email. Don't necessarily sign up for established large groups where you all already know each other, but feel free to go alone, as a couple or in manageable groups of friends. Be aware that beer plays a very important role in station pub tours, but not the only role. My tours are also intended to bring the country and its people closer together, to inspire you with hikes and train rides, and to simply give us all a few nice days. Please pay your advance payment in good time and, if you want to make changes, remember that I buy reservations and tickets months in advance, book hotels and use my small private fortune to pay in advance. Feel free to ask if I have incurred any costs if you have thought of another change you would like to make. Communication is everything: please respond when I have informed you about changes to the tour or expected disruptions (storms, strikes). Take time off for the trip and consider the arrival and departure to Dresden, for example; plan for overnight stays there if necessary. The request to leave early on the last day means a lot of work for me; so please only come along if you can probably follow the program from start to finish and have built in a buffer. Speak to or write to me.

How you can support me during the tour

Let's drink beer and liquor, but know and respect your own limits. Don't take glasses home from train station bars; that's just embarrassing for me, because I go there more often than you. You can often just buy a glass if you ask, and both cost next to nothing. Don't take drugs like cocaine or hashish during the tour. Get involved with the tour group, treat each other with respect; try to start a conversation with fellow travelers who are older than you, for example, or who look even weirder; they might also have something interesting to say about themselves. Show your dislike in this context discreetly and respectfully and not in the sense of "I don't want to sit with him." If asked, hand over the ticket to the train attendant, which I may have sent or given you beforehand. If possible, don't make WhatsApp a question of faith: for me, it's simply the easiest and quickest way to get information. Try the food in restaurants, even if they accidentally brought you the wrong thing. Think about how we should be remembered in bars and trains; so think about the things that I never thought I would have to write down here: clearing tables, taking rubbish with you, taking shoes off the seat, not banging them against walls, speaking to each other at an appropriate volume and using appropriate words, etc. Think about where you are and what kind of trip you are taking part in: we are guests in other countries and it is not a given that train station bars, for example, will open up to small German groups and serve us as warmly as we almost always experience. Behind this hospitality lies years of preparatory work that I have done. I will not let this recognition, which I am now receiving more and more often, be ruined by idiots who cannot behave. I would also like to point out again that I organize the trips on a voluntary basis and in my free time: a sense of entitlement like with a package holiday booked through a travel agency is completely out of place. For the sake of simplicity, I usually pay for everything together in the pubs and settle the bill afterwards. Given the price level that is usually found, I think discussions like "I only had a small beer, not a large beer like XY" are superfluous. The opposite is also true: if you order dessert with your organic veal schnitzel every time you stop in, while everyone else just sticks to the sparkling water, you might even add 50 krone to the bill. And please refrain from talking on the phone loudly on the trains or playing videos/music loudly; that just gets in the way and annoys the tour guide. Note for allergy sufferers: in isolated, unavoidable cases, my trips may contain traces of trams, buses and ferries.

Well, then the rest that we already know…

My opinion on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has its origins in the depths of my brain and heart, and is not just related to the fact that I have contacts there. But yes: Russia's attack on Ukraine is causing great suffering on the ground, which is also affecting my friends. Regardless of the personal relationship I have built up with this country, I condemn the daily cruelties of Russia and will not enter into any discussion that is intended to raise doubts about who is to blame for this conflict. People who do not clearly see Russia as the perpetrator of this injustice, but who rant about two sides that now have to come to an agreement somehow, or people who want to use the increase in food or petrol prices in Germany as an argumentative reason to weaken their support for Ukraine, are expressly not welcome on my tours. If you also think that the corona vaccination at the time was based on a plan by Bill Gates to secretly implant microchips in people; if you are of the opinion that life was good in the GDR because you only had to adapt accordingly; If you are convinced that the public media are not allowed to broadcast certain programs that could show the truth because government agencies prohibit them from doing so, then please buy a Germany ticket and set off on your own, but please do not request one of my tours.

And on the advice of my legal department, I would like to point out the following:

You, as a private individual, take part in an excursion with me of your own free will and understand that this is neither a commercial offer nor a package tour. You are responsible for all your actions, in particular for your insurance cover, the travel and entertainment costs you incur (unless these are already covered by the advance payment) and also for all other obligations that you have already been aware of since you turned 18. I will be happy to help you obtain the necessary tickets and of course you can follow my suggestions for the course of the trip; just as if I were your tour guide. There is one more condition on my part: the publication of the exact date, meeting point and course of the excursion is not permitted before the start of the trip for security reasons. The "gag" of my trips is a certain element of surprise. This means that I will take care of everything necessary and you can simply enjoy the trip. Publishing the exact schedule in advance, including departure times, train numbers and the expected lunch alternatives, would in some ways undermine my idea. And I ask you not to publish any detailed information after the trip, as researching, preparing and organizing the tours means a lot of work for me in my free time. I can't force you to do this, of course, but I ask you to show a little sensitivity in this regard. Incidentally, there are no rail trips to the following countries: Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Hungary.

Also: Emergency brake due to too much demand

Finally, I would like to apologize for having to restructure the current annual program, contrary to my plans and what I had promised you. Unfortunately, I have taken on too much this year because I couldn't say no and now I have to live with the consequences and disappoint you: far too many participants, 26 tours, my actual job on the side and more and more special requests regarding tickets or earlier departures - all of this has increased the organizational effort to such an extent that I was no longer able to manage it. I'm sorry. Of course, next year I will give priority to those travel friends who I had to turn down this year with travel date suggestions. Thank you for your understanding.

Partial travel warning for Lusatia (valid since February 5, 2023)

For reasons that were reported in the relevant local press at the time, train journeys between Dresden and Zittau and between Dresden and Görlitz are still strongly discouraged today. There is an acute and realistic risk of being turned away from trains at remote stations along the way. Inconsistent decisions in the application of the fare that are incomprehensible to customers and can be made arbitrarily by train staff have led to individual cases in the past where passengers were suddenly excluded from the journey despite having valid tickets, even with the involvement of the regional security authorities. In such cases, Schienenstrang-Reisen cannot offer protection or guarantee onward travel by other means of transport. I therefore warn against travelling on trains operated by the railway company on the routes mentioned and will not use them as part of the Schienenstrang tours. Travellers who are still on the trains despite this warning are urgently requested to get off immediately and take a taxi to the nearest station with rail transport operated by ČD or DB.

If you really still want to come along: Welcome, you fit in with me!

Your Tom